This article is part of the Guardian’s Euro 2016 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for France. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 10 June.

Swiss fans call him the warrior, not without reason. No scene offers a better illustration of Valon Behrami than the 93th minute of the match against Ecuador in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup. The score is 1-1 when Behrami blocks a shot in his own penalty area, throwing himself at the ball like an ice hockey player. Behrami then runs away with the ball, but he gets tackled hard. Any other player would squirm on the floor in pain. But he gets up and initiates the winner by Haris Seferovic with a clever through-ball to Ricardo Rodríguez. In the space of 30 seconds a likely 1-2 becomes 2-1 – thanks to Behrami.

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“If my style of play didn’t hurt I would be doing something wrong,” he told me the following day. “Injuries are a part of me.” He added: “My body will be broken after my career.”

Behrami was born on 19 April 1990 in Titova Mitrovica in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. His star sign? Aries, which is no surprise. Aries are known for being hell-bent on getting their own way.

His family, originally from Kosovo, fled from the Yugoslav war in 1990 to Switzerland. His father Ragip, mother Halime and their five-year-old son found shelter in the canton of Tessin in the southern part of Switzerland near the Italian border. But in 1995 the Swiss authorities decided the Behrami family had to leave the country. Valon, now 10, had become an enthusiastic runner and was supported by the Ligormetto athletics club. More than 2,000 signatures were collected. The Behramis were allowed to stay. In Stabio, where the family received Swiss citizenship two years later, Valon’s footballing career began.

On his right calf Behrami has a tattoo of the Kosovan eagle. On his left arm are the flags of Kosovo and Switzerland. “I’m proud to wear the colours of Switzerland. I can fight for a country that has given so much to my family,” he said. Behrami does not consider playing for Kosovo. Not then, not now, as Kosovo has now been accepted as a member of Fifa and can take part in qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

Behrami said before the World Cup qualification game against Albania: “I have decided to play football for one country, I will always play for the Swiss national team.” Asked if he would celebrate if he scored against Albania, he replied: “Celebrating a goal is part of the game. When I score a goal I want to celebrate. I want football to be fun.”

At only 18 and after only one season with Lugano in the second tier Behrami moved to Genoa where his steep rise began: Verona, Lazio, West Ham United, Fiorentina, Napoli, Hamburg and Watford, his current club, followed.

Behrami made his debut for the national team on 8 October 2005; in a 1-1 draw in the World Cup qualifier against France he got on for two minutes. Three weeks later he came on in the 83rd minute of the World Cup playoff first leg against Turkey, and scored the second goal in a 2-0 win three minutes later. The goal proved to be golden after the turbulent second leg in Istanbul, that Turkey won 4-2 in a match marred by trouble on and off the pitch.

After the World Cup in Germany in 2006, the European Championship in Switzerland in 2008, the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 and the World Cup in Brazil Behrami is set to participate in his fifth big tournament. With that he will break the Swiss record of Tranquillo Barnetta. So far he has picked up 64 caps, scoring two goals.

In 2010 in South Africa the warrior cut a rather unlucky figure. In the second group game against Chile he was sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct after only 32 minutes. Switzerland went on to lose 1-0 and Ottmar Hitzfeld’s team had to go home after the opening stage despite beating the eventual champions, Spain, in the opening match. Behrami missed that historic win because of injury. That didn’t come as a surprise.

Two groin operations in 2006 and 2008, a torn cruciate ligament in 2009, a cracked exterior ribbon in the knee in 2011 and a broken metatarsal in 2014 are only the most severe injuries Behrami has picked up. For the past two years he has been struggling with knee cartilage damage. For many professionals it would be a reason to end your career. But not for the warrior. After every training session or game he limps off to the team bus with an icepack around his knee.

In Gentilino, above Lugano Paradiso, Behrami had his dream villa built into the rock. From all three front windows he, his life companion, Elena (a former Italian TV presenter), and daughter, Sofia, aged seven, have a view over the lake of Lugano and the local mountains of Monte Bré and Monte San Salvatore. There aren’t many places in Switzerland that offer a more beautiful sight than the one Behrami can enjoy from his own swimming pool. In his garage there is a Ferrari 458 Italia, a Porsche Cayenne Turbo and Mini Cooper S. Behrami says of his fiancée: “She has a big influence on me. Elena showed me that my rebellious and partly moody ways are wrong. She has tamed the rebel in me. I am very lucky to have her by my side.”

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A player who is not afraid to go his own way, he – in contrast to many players who seem keen to increase their social-media profile – closed his Facebook account recently. The reason? He was fed up with all the negative comments. “I am not in the mood to see comments from certain people. In those situations you need to stay positive and to hold your head high.” A few weeks later he got needlessly sent off in the pre-Euro 2016 friendly against Belgium. That did not go down well with the public, or his manager, Vladimir Petkovic.

Born in the Ivory Coast as a result of his father’s extra-marital affair in 1986. Back in Switzerland, Joachim Djourou told his Swiss wife, Danièle, what had happened. Danièle, however, did not react how one might expect. Johan Djourou told Blick in 2014: “My mum in Switzerland did not have any kids at the time and, while she was disappointed with what my dad had done, she forgave him and did not hesitate about adopting me.”

Fabian Schär

In 2010 there was little to indicate that the defender would become an international footballer. He knew it too so he studied for a back-up career in a local bank, the Raiffeisen in Wil, where he was playing for the local second-division club. “I used to work all day in the bank and then go to training and then come home and start my homework at 10pm,” he said after joining Basel, where he has played Champions League football. While at Wil, he came to national attention when he scored against FC Aarau with a preposterous shot from well inside his own half.

Breel Embolo

Was widely praised in November 2015 when, with Basel losing 3-2 against Grasshoppers, he told the referee that he had wrongly given Basel a corner. The official thanked him, he received a kiss from the Grasshoppers defender Harun Alpsoy and backing from his team-mates. Michael Lang said: “That says a lot about Breel and his character. To be able to keep his cool and do that in such a hectic and important game speaks volumes.”